TRENTON — Schools would not immediately be able to deny students lunch because their parents haven't paid the tab under a bill scheduled for a hearing by a state Assembly panel Monday.

The bill (A1796) is a response to a Willingboro school district policy announced in September instructing staff to throw kids' meals away if their lunch accounts have gone delinquent.

"This is just outrageous," bill sponsor Assemblyman Joe Cryan (D-Union) said in a September press release. "With poverty on the rise and families struggling to make ends meet, this is cruel and unreasonable."

Cryan's legislation would require schools to contact the students' parents or guardians if the students' lunch account isn't paid and give them 10 days to pay it. The school would then have to issue a second warning to the parents, and then give them anohter 7 days to pay before they could deny the child lunch.

"The idea that a child can load up a tray with lunch, but then have the meal thrown away is incomprehensible. This sounds like something from the Dark Ages."

The bill is scheduled for a 10am hearing Monday by the Assembly Women and Children Commtitee, which will also take testimony on how to improve school lunches and expand school breakfast programs.